


Reassurance

by criss_cross_applesauce



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Comfort, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23275369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/criss_cross_applesauce/pseuds/criss_cross_applesauce
Summary: I'll admit, the last thing I posted was made out reactiveness, instead of contemplation. So here's a story I made while relaxed. Well, more so than before.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Comments: 7
Kudos: 53





	Reassurance

**Author's Note:**

> I'll admit, the last thing I posted was made out reactiveness, instead of contemplation. So here's a story I made while relaxed. Well, more so than before.

Connie closes the door behind her and they are in her room by themselves. Steven is looking down swinging his legs and clenching his teeth with his mouth closed. He's trying not to show his anxiety, but it just isn’t working in the slightest.

Walking across the rug in her room was leaving a different sensation than normal. It hurt to see him in such a state and this made other senses different. She plops down beside of him, breathes in slowly and lets all out at once.

“Hey.”

Steven stops moving and replies back with diminished sound. “Hey.”

Steven looks away and so does Connie. The silence between them feels like an entire crushing ocean.

Connie breathes and centers herself. “Hey biscuit, you seem like you’ve been having a lot of trouble lately.”

Steven scoffs while burning an intense pink, but pulls hisself back and puts his hand on his mouth before saying, “I. Yeah. You could say that, Strawberry. You could definitely say that.”

The silence comes back into the room. They both feel like springs being continually wound up. Then Connie remembers.

“Steven?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we sit facing each other instead of beside each other?”

“Huh?”

He looks at her face and immediately relents. He turns to the right and Connie turns to the left. The smell of incense is powerful to Steven, but doesn’t seem to affect Connie any. He supposes she burns some every day because of its intensity.

Steven keeps his arms crossed while Connie tries to keep her arms as open as possible without looking weird.

“You’re hurting.”

“Oh yeah? I wonder where you got that idea from?” His words leave a taste in his mouth just like when Connie had him try Amla. _He remembered, she said this fruit is very high in vitamin C. When I bit into it was not like any other fruit I had before and Connie couldn’t contain her laughter anymore. I hadn’t known she had a mischevious streak in her. It was pretty funny afterward though. I miss that time where nothing seemed **that** awful, even the things that were genuinely horrifying._

“Do you want to talk about it?”

An intense battle rages inside of Steven trying to come to a decision. His left arm swells.

“What’s there to say? You’ve experienced a lot of these things with me. What do _you_ think?”

She nods. “Right, but I don’t live in your skin, well not unless we’re fused, but that’s a whole other matter.” She says while waving her hand.

Steven unfolds his arms and clenches his hands into fists. He shakes his fist with his swollen arm. If he had been holding anything it would have surely been crushed to pieces in his grip. “I don’t. After talking about my first experiences to Dr. Maheswaran, it started to hit me about how much they actually hurt. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay.”

“H-huh? This is usually the time when someone berates me for keeping to myself.” He starts talking in a mocking tone while having his hand talk, “ _Steven if you don’t talk about it you’ll just make it worse. And blah blah blah blah blah._ ”

Connie chuckles a little. Steven’s swelling goes down.

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. But if do you change your mind, I’m right here.”

Steven looks around her room. He’s been too distracted so far, but he feels a little more at ease. Her desk is a very organized piece of furniture, but something else catches his eye. There’s a picture of them together on the right side. He starts to feel just a little bit of hope.

“By the way. Why are we in your room? Won’t your parents wonder what we’re doing?”

“Oh no, mom’s out right now. She won’t be back until tomorrow. And dad works really late into the night. Besides, I wanted you to come _here_ because I want to show you that I want you in my life. I want you to stay. That’s one thing that’s not changing, even if so many other things are.”

He breathes out shivering.

“Connie… I feel so broken inside. Things are changing and when I think I’ve finally accepted reality changing, I actually haven’t. It just keeps coming back burrowing into me. And I hurt.”

They look at each other sitting opposite of each other on her bed. She reaches for his hand and just stays in the same position. She holds his left hand with her right hand.

“Steven, I saw you suffer because of what I said to you on the beach. I wish I had said things a little better.” Her eyes tear up a little, but she tries not to cry in the moment so as to focus on his emotions, not her own for now. His skin returns to normal.

“No! You were right. I didn’t mean to make things go faster than you were comfortable with. I-”

Connie gets closer to him and puts a finger on his lips. “Shhh.”

She lowers her hand.

“What? But you said.”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with either of us being right or wrong. I did feel put on the spot and quite awkward, yes, but when I thought about what you were saying and why you said it, well, it became somewhat clearer.” She hugs him laying her head on his shoulder. He doesn’t move his arms, he just can’t.

Normally, in this state they would fuse, but there’s too much turmoil in Steven and he’s shutting hisself off at deeper levels as well shallow levels. She lets him out of her embrace.

She hangs her head while keeping a hand on his shoulder. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone on the beach.”

“No! I didn’t want to talk about it. There was already too much going on in me before I took you to the beach and then. Well, you know the rest.”

She thinks to herself. _Focus Connie, focus! If I get too distracted by my own problems I won’t be able to help. I’ll have time for my own problems, later. I think I can count on that._

She makes eye contact again. Steven is visibly shaking and he’s fighting back tears because it hurts too much.

“Was that because you were afraid of lashing out at me?”

They look at each other, and Connie sees a deep pain inside Steven’s eyes. He breaks eye contact and his skin starting glowing pink somewhat. “Yeah. Kind of. My powers are really scary when they get out of control, no when _I_ get out of control. You saw what happened at the hospital. And even though, well. In spite of your clarification, it still hurts.”

“I know, biscuit, I know.”

He embraces her and cools down. She returns his embrace and runs her hand through his thick curly black hair. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you. You’ve been there for me. And now I’m here for you.”

“Thank you. So much.”

“Will you promise me to at least consider going to a therapist?”

“Yeah. I think I could do something that small.”

_This is most likely going to continue to be a sticking point. You might not admit it, though. I was pouring salt on your open wounds without even realizing it, but I’m not going anywhere. You really can count on that, biscuit._


End file.
